Blogging since 2005, passionate about writing since 2000, trying without success to lose weight since 1990
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Monday, November 28, 2005

The day I ignored my own judgement!

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(Imagine seeing this the whole time when driving and was not wise enough to pull over and fill it up. That is being foolish indeed. Picture source: http://web.csp.edu).These days I fill my car tank full…I am not sure why. Perhaps it was due to the increase in the price of petrol or it was the convenience of filling it once (rather than several times).

Anyway, yesterday when I was heading to KL to see my Dad in the hospital, the fuel indicator showed less than half of the tank being full. I must have lost track of the mileage because when we went for our dinner and thereafter went for the night market, I was surprised to see the fuel indicator comfortably resting at point marked “E”. My initial reaction was to pull over and fill up the tank but being very at late (it was already 11.00 pm), I thought I could do it in the morning (at my favorite petrol station).

When I first bought the car 2 years ago, I calculated that it guzzles up an average RM10 for every 100 kilometers. These days (and with a service long overdue), I guess I get less for my mileage. Being a Proton, the “low fuel” warning light comes in early and I tend to ignore it because I could easily get another 50 – 100 kilometers more from the available fuel from the time the warning comes in.

Yesterday, the warning light was permanently was “on” and I misjudged the fuel balance (as usual). After reaching home, my wife asked me whether I would have enough fuel for tomorrow and I confidently said yes (ya, my ego blinded my sense here).

This morning, it was raining…heavily. As I was getting ready for work, I thought about the low fuel in car and dread the consequences of being stranded beside the road in the rain. Then it hit me. I began to worry about the low fuel. In fact, I was so worried that I did not have appetite for my breakfast. I could imagine the worst scenario – I am driving towards my office, overtaking a car on the fast and suddenly, engine dies off, leaving me stranded in the middle of the highway, exposed to being rammed from behind by a fast moving car.

All the time as I was walking towards my car, I keep thinking about possible excuses for me to give in the event I need the highway emergency unit to tow my car to the nearest petrol station.

Finally I was inside the car, slowly started the car…it struggled to start. Immediately I thought the worse had happened but I remembered that it is raining and cold start normally acts this way. I waited for couple of seconds and the engine roared back into the familiar “ok” sound. I did not turn on the air-condition or the CD player (to save whatever fuel that was left) and started my journey (slowly). All the way, I maintained to the extreme left of the highway, fearing the worse to happen at anytime then. Luckily for me, there was a petrol station nearby (thank God for having enough fuel to reach it in the first place) and I stopped for fuel.

The tank was indeed was almost empty and the car would have stopped if I had continued without refueling. I filled up RM62 worth of petrol (big relief on seen on my face). I realise that I should have filled up when the warning light came in permanently yesterday but I just ignored my own judgement.